shammes53

It is an area all by itself, with 2 1/2* 2* and 1* Congratulations, you got your price of $35 for a 2-star hotel room. Hampton Inn Carlisle Check-In Date: Monday, June 13, 2005 Check-Out Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 1165 Harrisburg Pike Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013 717-240-0200

Your Offer Price: $30.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $30.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $10.75 Total Charges: $40.75 Have won this one before, never any complaints.

Your Offer Price: $35.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $35.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $10.56 Total Charges: $45.56 We are planning a side trip to Hershey (on our way to D.C) in June wanting to book two nights (13 & 14) in the Harrisburg/Hershey area, we would most likely be coming in late on the 13th (after driving all day) After reading posts in this forum, I wanted to try and get the 3* Crowne Plaza for these nights but had bis rejected on two seperate occasions (waiting the 72 hours) This after bidding only for *3 and using three re-bids (with no *3) and finally adding the Harrisburg West area and bidding up to $50 - no good. I already had booked as a backup, two nights ($80 per) at one of the Harrisburg Best Westerns, but wanted to spend less. I went to bidding right way again (didn't wait 72 hours) with this strategy (although got messages about duplicate bidding): Bid for one night only (June 13th) Selected Harrisburg *4 Bid $30 - rejected Added Harrisburg - Hershey bid $35 - rejected Added Carlisle bid $40 - rejected Added Harrisburg West bid $50 - rejected (Was willing to take *3 in this area) Did not add last re-bid (York) but added *2 to all other areas and lowered bid to $35 If rejected I would wait 72 hours and re-bid After about a 5 minute wait (went to the screen that says check status of request in 15 minutes) the bid was accepted and I won the Hampton Inn in Carlisle, which worked out fine (have seen good reviews for it) I will bid for another night here or elsewhere after we decide if we are here on the 13th/14th or 12/13th, either way I have one night booked. This hotel goes for $99 (direct website) and has some nice amenities, easy access to the Interstate and not that far from Hershey, should do nicely. Will post a review when stay is completed. :)

Tried to get a 4* hotel in the in USE area (attending conference at Moscone), but was rejected Bid History: 1: $55USE 2: $60 USE + Cathedral Hill 3. $65 USE + Fisherman's Wharf 4. $67 USE + SFO 5. $75 USE + South San Francisco Wanted to try to stay $80 or below, did not add USW area on this try - closed browser Tried re-bidding same, showed duplicate bid, added USW instead of SSF lowered bid to $60 - rejected Close browser again Selected 4* USW 1: $60 USW 2: $63 USW + Cathedral Hill 3. $65 USW + Fisherman's Wharf 4. $67 USW + SFO 5. $68 USW + South San Francisco 6. $75 USW + USE Bid successful - booked at Hilton. During process, message regarding duplicate bid was shown, but kept bidding and after going to $75 and adding USE, Priceline accepted! Not sure it would go. I have heard mixed reviews on the Hilton, but I think it should work fine - $75 is a good rate ($209 other sources) Besides I'm not going to be living in the room the whole time, got better things to do :) Offer Price: $75.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 4 Travel Insurance: $20.00 Subtotal: $320.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $54.00 Total Charges: $374.00 Took the travel insurance again, anyone one have an opinion on this? For an extra $5 a day it seems worth it, you never know what can happen (could end up in hospital or something and not be able to go) Thanks again for all the GREAT information and tips posted here! It makes it fun to bid for hotel rooms.

First of all, let me say how glad I was to find this website! Great advice and information for getting the most out of bidding for hotels. :) We are a family of 3 (son 7 years old) and are taking a trip out east this summer and visiting D.C. is part of our agenda. We have firm dates picked out and I did a lot of research on where to stay when there (had to be close to Metro and have a pool) Six years ago we visited the area (without our son) and stayed at the Omni Shoreham and loved it! BTW, we were staying free becuse of a sales contest my wife won at work. This trip it would have been nice to stay there again (or somewhere similar), but checking rates at all the usual places I found rates a little out of sight. It's high season and I realize rates will be that way, so I finally settled on booking a room at the Courtyard in Rosslyn. Looked like a nice place, had a pool, high speed internet and close to the Metro. I booked through Marriot and got a guaranteed reservation that I would be able to cancel and not payable up front. I had considered booking through Priceline (I do all the time for the Minneapolis area), but was afraid of what hotel I might end up being booked at. After finding out about BetterBidding (not sure how I stumbled on it), I went to work reading the different forums and getting a good idea how to "work the system" and obtain a desirable hotal at a great price! Here's how it went: After finding out the Omni was a hotel I might likely get as a 4* in the Woodley Park area, I decided to try for it. Checking another source, it looked like the Westin was not available during the dates I needed, so I knew I had a good chance to get the Omni (with a winning bid) So following the advice posted on the forum I tried it (but wasn't successful) Chose Dupont/Woodley Park at 4* bid $60, no good. Did not change star rating throughout process. added Alexandria/Mount Vernon bid $65, no good. added Alexandria/Pentagon bid $75, no good. added Arlington and bid $85, not accepted and closed browser to started over again. Decided to try another area for a 4*, saw that many people got great rates downtown (especially the Grand Hyatt, which looked pretty good) The bidding proceess: Chose Downtown/White House and Convention Center/Capitol Hill started bid at $65, no good. added Alexandria/Mount Vernon bid $70, no good. Did not change star rating throughout process. added Alexandria/Pentagon bid $80, no good. added Arlington and bid $90, which was accepted :) Grand Hyatt Washington 4* WOW!!! ($309 most sites) Your Offer Price: $90.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Travel Insurance: $15.00 Subtotal: $285.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $47.13 Total Charges: $332.13 Decided to go with the insurance, just in case and will soon cancel my Courtyard reservation, so glad I found this website! Thanks everyone for all the great advise (sorry about the long post) Happy bidding all!